


Pumpkin Head Guy

by haloburns



Series: Band Practice [4]
Category: Night In The Woods (Video Game)
Genre: Angsty ish, Fluff, I love their relationship, M/M, cute domestical kids
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-28
Updated: 2017-07-28
Packaged: 2018-12-08 04:57:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,127
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11639388
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/haloburns/pseuds/haloburns
Summary: Gregg and Mae have a vaguely normal day (no crimes) and he's Inspired by their day. Of course, there's a little bit of Emotion hidden because Gregg is a little bit a lot all over the place.





	Pumpkin Head Guy

Gregg loved Mae with all of his heart, but she had problems Gregg couldn’t handle. That damn “psychiatrist” wasn’t helping a damn thing. He worried when she went quiet and stared off at nothing. She looked like the whole world was on her shoulders and hers alone. Gregg never pressed her to talk about it because she shut him down with sarcasm (he did the same), but he wanted to help her _so badly_.Gregg had a feeling even Mae had no idea what she was feeling, and that made things harder.

Most days they laid around and did nothing. Lots of staring at ceilings and making horrible puns. Sometimes Mae just came and sat on the floor of the Snack Falcon, behind the counter, and didn’t move. Her head would lay against Gregg’s leg and when he’d ask if she was okay, she’d nod but it was a lie. If she were okay she’d be more willing to smash light bulbs, or at least wear cups on her ears like the rest of the world.

On one of Gregg’s rare days off, close to Harfest, two of them were wandering around and killing time before Angus got off work. Gregg and Angus were going out for a well deserved date. He could tell Mae resented him a little, because she and Bea kept butting heads over and over…

With a significant lack of things to do, they headed into the tunnel. What they hoped to find, they had no idea. They did spot a kid sitting near the river by the pretzel stand with a pumpkin on his head. His feet kicked merrily against the side of the stone bank, eating a pretzel through the small mouth cutouts. Mae had the urge to talk to him, reminiscing about her days as a Youth. (“Two years, Mae. It’s only been two years..” “It was a lifetime ago, Greggory Lee…”). Mae and Pumpkin Head Guy talked more in depth about what it meant to be a Pumpkin Head Person so near to Harfest while Gregg snatched a few pretzels when the cook wasn’t watching, just like those lifetimes ago Mae was reminiscing about.

Gregg returned with their salty, crispy golden prizes and they bade Pumpkin Head Guy a delightful Harfest and together the two set off towards Towne Centre. They passed the walk in silence, munching on the stolen pretzels with zeal. After a few tricky jumps, the two sat up on the roof, observing all of Possum Springs. Gregg carried on about Angus and their plans to move to Bright Harbour and Mae pined over Bea between Gregg’s elaborate plans.

Of course, Gregg eventually ran out of plans, and he was itching to know what was going on with his bestest friend in the world.

“What are you gonna do, Mae? And I mean this in a totally non-confrontational way. But like Angus and I are moving to Bright Harbor, and Bea’s trying to follow. What about you?” He looked at her, expecting to see sarcasm, deprecating humor, anger. What he saw was immense sadness and a weight beyond her young twenty years. When she spoke, it was quieter than he’d ever heard, gentle too. Despite what he’d seen since she’d been back, Mae had matured too.

“I guess I’ll move to Bright Harbor and get an apartment and a job and we’ll have to schedule friend dates like grown-ups and we’ll bitch about bills and refrain from buying a car and abusing BH’s bus system…” She trailed off, leaving a huge question unanswered.

“So no more school.” But as he said it, Gregg knew it wasn’t a question anymore. Mae had her reasons, and Bea might think she’s throwing away everything, but Gregg wanted what was best for Mae. Fuck what society says. Obviously, school didn’t work out. No one would willingly come back to Possum Springs.

“No more school. Maybe….maybe after I get my head put back together I can try again. But for now, with whatever’s going on, it’s just too hard.” He nodded his understanding, but he was still left a little confused. _What was going on and_ **_why_ ** _wouldn’t she tell him?!_

He didn’t question her further, knowing he wanted to so badly. But he also knew his friend needed him, and so he groped around for a subject. As his eyes wandered along the street, he caught a glimpse of Pumpkin Head Guy disappearing around the corner. A lightbulb went off in his brain and he turned to Mae quickly, a wide grin on his face.

“Dude… what if we all had pumpkin heads.” Mae didn’t seem offended by Gregg’s shift in attention, but instead, she seemed to relish in it. Shaking the weird daze off her, she turned to Gregg, one eyebrow raised.

“But the _real_ question is would they rot like real pumpkins?” Gregg stared at her in disbelief as she laughed.

Gods it was great to have her home.

* * *

Gregg tapped out a rhythm all throughout dinner, chords singing through his head. He knew it annoyed Angus, but Gregg also knew himself. When he was struck this hard by inspiration, they had to let it play out. Angus mostly ignored it, knowing Gregg enough to know picking at his tics only made them worse. He hated seeing that kicked puppy look on Gregg’s face, so Angus filled the empty silence with random stories, waiting for Gregg to return to him.

“Is that a song you’re working on?” Angus asked with genuine interest after he noticed Gregg’s fingers moving in the pattern of a six-string guitar. His hand moved across the table to the corresponding frets but Angus’ question stalled his movements.

“I guess?” he said before laughing sheepishly. “I’m sorry, Angus. I know it’s our date night and I’m sucked into something completely not you.” He looked at Angus with some much pure affection and Angus told him not to worry about it. He understood Gregg better than Gregg thought.

“I thought of it earlier when I was with Mae. We saw this guy with a pumpkin on his head, and you know Mae and I, we devolve. So we devolved. And I guess that devolution led to this exact moment. Weird, huh?” Angus smiled softly at his boyfriend.

“Yeah. So tell me about this song…” There was nothing better to talk about, so Angus wasn’t too put out that Gregg spent the next hour and a half singing parts and playing rhythms and working out lyrics with Angus.

It was probably the best date night they’d had in a long while. It was a good night in the middle of a weird few weeks.

_Life comes and goes way too fast for me to even ask…_


End file.
